PASSPORT NOT CORRECT.
"I have been in Russia before," he continued, "and know what I am saying. The first time I went there was from Berlin, and on reaching the frontier I was stopped because my passport was not properly indorsed. I supposed I would have to go back to Berlin, but the station-master said I need not take that trouble; I could stop at the hotel, and he would arrange the whole matter, so that I might proceed exactly twenty-four hours later. I did as he told me, and it was all right."
"How was it accomplished?"
"Why, he took my passport and a dozen others whose owners were in the same fix as myself, and sent them by the conductor of the train to Kœnigsburg, where there is a Russian consul. For a fee of two English shillings (fifty cents of your money) the consul approved each passport; another fee of fifty cents paid the conductor for his trouble, and he brought back the passports on his return run to the frontier. Then the station-master wanted four shillings (one dollar) for his share of the work, and we were allen regleto enter the Russian Empire. We got our baggage ready, and were at the station when the train arrived; the station-master delivered our passports, and collected his fee along with the fees of the conductor and consul, and that ended the whole business. The consul knew nothing about any of the persons named in the passports, and we might have been conspirators or anything else that was objectionable, and nobody would have been the wiser. Russia is the only countryin Europe that keeps up the passport system with any severity, and it only results in putting honest people to trouble and expense, and never stops those whom it is intended to reach. There, they've opened the door, and we can now go before the representatives of the autocrat of all the Russias."
IN THE PASSPORT BUREAU.
One by one they approached the desk, with the result already stated. At the examination of the baggage in the custom-house the clothing and personal effects of our friends were passed without question, but there was some difficulty over a few books which the boys had bought before leaving Vienna. One volume, pronounced objectionable, was seized as contraband, but the others were not taken. Every book written by a foreignerabout Russia is carefully examined by the official censor as soon as it is published, and upon his decision depends the question of its circulation being allowed in the Empire. Anything calculated to throw disrespect upon the Imperial family, or upon the Government in general, is prohibited, as well as everything which can be considered to have a revolutionary tendency.
"They are not so rigid as they used to be," growled the Englishman, as he closed and locked his trunk after the examination was completed. "In the time of the Emperor Nicholas they would not allow anything that indicated there was any other government in the world which amounted to anything, and they were particularly severe upon all kinds of school-books. Now they rarely object to school-books, unless they contain too many teachings of liberty; and they are getting over their squeamishness about criticisms, even if they are abusive and untruthful. The worst case I ever heard of was of an inspector at one of the frontier stations, who seized a book on astronomy because it contained a chapter on 'The Revolutions of the Earth.' He said nothing revolutionary could be allowed to enter the Empire, and confiscated the volume in spite of its owner's explanations.
"Under Nicholas," continued the Englishman, "Macaulay's 'History of England' was prohibited, though it could be bought without much trouble. After Alexander II. ascended the throne the rigors of the censorship were greatly reduced, and papers and books were freely admitted into Russia which were prohibited in France under Louis Napoleon. All the Tauchnitz editions of English works were permitted, even including Carlyle's 'French Revolution.' It is possible that the last-named book had escaped notice, as you would hardly expect it to be allowed free circulation in Russia. Books and newspapers addressed to the professors of the universities, to officers above the rank of colonel, and to the legations of foreign countries are not subjected to the censorship, or at least they were not so examined a few years ago. Since the rise of Nihilism the authorities have become more rigid again, and books and papers are stopped which would not have been suppressed at all before the death of Alexander II.
"If you want to know the exact functions of the censor," said the gentleman, turning to Frank and Fred, "here is an extract from his instructions."
With these words he gave to one of the youths a printed slip which stated that it was the censor's duty to prohibit and suppress "all works written in a spirit hostile to the orthodox Greek Church, or containinganything that is contrary to the truths of the Christian religion, or subversive of good manners or morality; all publications tending to assail the inviolability of autocratical monarchical power and the fundamental laws of the Empire, or to diminish the respect due to the Imperial family; all productions containing attacks on the honor or reputation of any one, by improper expressions, by the publication of circumstances relating to domestic life, or by calumny of any kind whatever."
The boys thanked the gentleman for the information he had given them on a subject about which they were curious; and as the examination of the custom-house was completed, they proceeded to the restaurant, which was in a large hall at the end of the station.
WAY STATION ON THE RAILWAY.
Near the door of the restaurant was the office of a money-changer, its character being indicated by signs in at least half a dozen languages. Passengers were exchanging their Austrian money for Russian, and the office seemed to be doing an active business.
"That fellow has about as good a trade as one could wish," said the Englishman, as he nodded in the direction of the man at the little window. "Two trains arrive here daily each way; for people going north he changes Austrian into Russian money, and for those going south hechanges Russian into Austrian. He receives one per cent. commission on each transaction, which amounts to four per cent. daily, as he handles the money four times. I have often envied these frontier bankers, who run no risk whatever, provided they are not swindled with counterfeits, and can make twelve hundred per cent. annually on their capital. But perhaps they have to pay so dearly for the privilege that they are unable to get rich by their business. By-the-way," said he, changing the subject abruptly, "did you observe the stout lady that stood near us in the anteroom of the passport office?"
BEFORE EXAMINATION.
"Yes," answered the Doctor, "and she seemed quite uneasy, as though she feared trouble."
"Doubtless she did," was the reply, "but it was not on account of her passport. She was probably laden with goods which she intended smuggling into Russia, and feared detection. I noticed that she was called aside by the custom-house officials, and ushered into the room devoted to suspected persons. She isn't here yet, and perhaps they'll keep her till the train has gone. Ah! here she comes."
AFTER EXAMINATION.
Frank and Fred looked in the direction indicated, but could not see any stout lady; neither could the Doctor, but he thought he recognized a face he had seen before. It belonged to a woman who was comparatively slight in figure, and who took her seat very demurely at one of the tables near the door.
"That is the stout lady of the anteroom," said the Englishman, "and her form has been reduced more rapidly than any advocate of the Banting or any other anti-fat system ever dreamed of. She was probably detected by her uneasy manner, and consequently was subjected to an examination at the hands of the female searchers. They've removed dry goods enough from her to set up a small shop, and she won't undertake smuggling again in a hurry. Import duties are high in Russia, and the temptation to smuggle is great. She was an inexperienced smuggler, or she wouldnot have been caught so easily. Probably she is of some other nationality than Russian, or they would not have liberated her after confiscating her contraband goods."
The incident led to a conversation upon the Russian tariff system, which is based upon the most emphatic ideas in favor of protection to home industries. As it is no part of our intention to discuss the tariff in this volume, we will omit what was said upon the subject, particularly as no notes were taken by either Frank or Fred.
In due time the train on the Russian side of the station was ready to receive the travellers, and they took their places in one of the carriages. It needed only a glance to show they had crossed the frontier. The Austrian uniform disappeared, and the Russian took its place; the Russian language was spoken instead of German; the carriages were lettered in Russian; posts painted in alternate stripes of white and black (the invention of the Emperor Paul about the beginning of the present century), denoted the sovereignty of the Czar; and the dress of many of the passengers indicated a change of nationality.
SCENE ON THE RAILWAY.
The train rolled away from Granitsa in the direction of Warsaw, which was the next point of destination of our friends. The country through which they travelled was not particularly interesting; it was fairly though not thickly settled, and contained no important towns on the line of the railway, or any other object of especial interest. Their English acquaintance said there were mines of coal, iron, and zinc in the neighborhood of Zombkowitse, where the railway from Austria unites with that from eastern Germany. It is about one hundred and eighty miles from Warsaw; about forty miles farther on there was a town with an unpronounceable name, with about ten thousand inhabitants, and a convent, which is an object of pilgrimage to many pious Catholics of Poland and Silesia. A hundred miles from Warsaw theypassed Petrikau, which was the seat of the ancient tribunals of Poland; and then, if the truth must be told, they slept for the greater part of the way till the train stopped at the station in the Praga suburb of Warsaw, on the opposite bank of the Vistula.
SHUTES FOR LOADING COAL ON THE RAILWAY.
As they neared the station they had a good view of Warsaw, on the heights above the river, and commanded by a fortress which occupies the centre of the city itself. Alighting from the train, they surrendered their passports to an official, who said the documents would be returned to them at the Hôtel de l'Europe, where they proposed to stop during their sojourn within the gates of Warsaw. Tickets permitting them to go into the city were given in exchange for the passports, and then they entered a rickety omnibus and were driven to the hotel.
It was late in the afternoon when they climbed the sloping road leading into Warsaw, and looked down upon the Vistula and the stretch of low land on the Praga side. Fred repeated the lines of the old verse from which we have already quoted, and observed how well the scene is described in a single couplet:
"Warsaw's last champion from her heights surveyed,Wide o'er the fields a waste of ruin laid."
Laid desolate by many wars and subjected to despotic rule, the country around Warsaw bears little evidence of prosperity. Many houses arewithout tenants, and many farms are either half tilled or wholly without cultivation. The spirit of revolution springs eternal in the Polish breast, and the spirit of suppression must be equally enduring in the breast of the Russian. It is only by the severest measures that the Russians can maintain their control of Poland. A Polish writer has well described the situation when he says, "Under a cruel government, it is Poland's duty to rebel against oppression; under a liberal government, it is her duty to rebel because she has the opportunity."
After dinner at the hotel our friends started for a walk through the principal streets; but they did not go very far. The streets were poorly lighted, few people were about, and altogether the stroll was not particularly interesting. They returned to the hotel, and devoted an hour or so to a chat about Poland and her sad history.
"Walls are said to have ears," the Doctor remarked, "but we have little cause to be disturbed about them, as we are only discussing among ourselves the known facts of history. Poland and Russia were at war for centuries, and at one time Poland had the best of the fight. How many of those who sympathize so deeply with the wrongs of Poland are aware of the fact that in 1610 the Poles held Moscow as the Russians now hold Warsaw, and that the Russian Czar was taken prisoner, and died the next year in a Polish prison? Moscow was burned by the Poles in 1611, and thousands of its inhabitants were slaughtered; in 1612 the Poles weredriven out, and from that time to the present their wars with Russia have not been successful."
"I didn't know that," said Frank, "until I read it to-day in one of our books."
"Nor did I," echoed Fred; "and probably not one person in a hundred is aware of it."
POLISH NATIONAL COSTUMES.
"Understand," said the Doctor, with emphasis—"understand that I do not say this to justify in any way the wrongs that Russia may have visited on Poland, but simply to show that all the wrong has not been on one side. Russia and Poland have been hostile to each other for centuries; they are antagonistic in everything—language, religion, customs, and national ambitions—and there could be no permanent peace betweenthem until one had completely absorbed the other. Twice in this century (in 1830 and 1863) the Poles have rebelled against Russia, because they had the opportunity in consequence of the leniency of the Government. From present appearances they are not likely to have the opportunity again for a long time, if ever."
One of the youths asked how the revolution of 1830 was brought about.
PEASANT'S FARM-HOUSE.
"Poland had been, as you know, divided at three different times, by Russia, Austria, and Prussia," said the Doctor, "the third partition taking place in 1795. At the great settlement among the Powers of Europe, in 1815, after the end of the Napoleonic wars, the Emperor of Russia proposed to form ancient Poland into a constitutional monarchy under the Russian crown. His plan was adopted, with some modifications, and from 1815 to 1830 the country had its national Diet or Parliament, its national administration, and its national army of thirty thousand men. The Russian Emperor was the King of Poland, and this the Poles resented; they rebelled, and were defeated. After the defeat the constitution was withdrawn and the national army abolished; the Polish universities wereclosed, the Polish language was proscribed in the public offices, and every attempt was made to Russianize the country. It was harshly punished for its rebellion until Alexander II. ascended the throne.
"Alexander tried to conciliate the people by granting concessions. The schools and universities were reopened; the language was restored; Poles were appointed to nearly all official positions; elective district and municipal councils were formed, and also a Polish Council of State. But nothing short of independence would satisfy the inhabitants, and then came the revolution of 1863. It was suppressed, like its predecessor, and from that time the Russians have maintained such an iron rule in Poland that a revolt of any importance is next to impossible. All the oppression of which Russia is capable cannot destroy the spirit of independence among the Poles. They are as patriotic as the Irish, and will continue to hope for liberty as long as their blood flows in human veins."
A knock on the door brought the Doctor's discourse to an abrupt end. It was made by the commissioner, who came to arrange for their excursion on the following day.
We will see in due course where they went and what they saw. It is now their bedtime, and they are retiring for the night.
ROYAL PALACE AT WARSAW.
The next morning they secured a carriage, and drove through the principal streets and squares, visiting the Royal Palace and other buildings of importance, and also the parks and gardens outside the city limits. Concerning their excursion in Warsaw the youths made the following notes:
"We went first to the Royal Castle, which we were not permitted to enter, as it is occupied by the Viceroy of Poland, or 'the Emperor's Lieutenant,' as he is more commonly called. It is a very old building, which has been several times altered and restored. There were many pictures and other objects of art in the castle until 1831, when they were removed to St. Petersburg. In the square in front of the castle is a statue of one of the kings of Poland, and we were told that the square was the scene of some of the uprisings of the Poles against their Russian masters.
SHRINE AT A GATEWAY.
"From the castle we went to the cathedral, which was built in the thirteenth century, and contains monuments to the memory of several of the kings and other great men of the country. It is proper to say herethat the Catholic is the prevailing religion of Poland, and no doubt much of the hatred of Russians and Poles for each other is in consequence of their religious differences. By the latest figures of the population that we have at hand, Russian Poland contains about 3,800,000 Catholics, 300,000 Protestants, 700,000 Jews, and 250,000 members of the Greek Church and adherents of other religions, or a little more than 5,000,000 of inhabitants in all. Like all people who have been oppressed, the Catholics and Jews are exceedingly devout, and adhere unflinchingly to their religious faith. Churches and synagogues are numerous in Warsaw, as in the other Polish cities. In our ride through Warsaw we passed manyshrines, and at nearly all of them the faithful were kneeling to repeat the prayers prescribed by their religious teachers.
"From the cathedral we went to the citadel, which is on a hill in the centre of the city, and was built after the revolution of 1830. The expense of its construction was placed upon the people as a punishment for the revolution, and for the purpose of bombarding the city in case of another rebellion. From the walls of the citadel there is a fine view of considerable extent; but there is nothing in the place of special interest. The fort is constantly occupied by a garrison of Russian soldiers. It contains a prison for political offenders and a military court-house, where they are tried for their alleged offences.
LAKE IN THE PARK.
"There are ten or twelve squares, or open places, in Warsaw, of which the finest is said to be the Saxon Square. It contains a handsome monument to the Poles who adhered to the Russian cause in the revolution of 1830. Some writers say it was all a mistake, and that the Poles whose memory is here preserved were really on their way to join the regiments which had declared in favor of the insurrection.
"There are several handsome streets and avenues; and as for the public palaces and fine residences which once belonged to noble families of Poland, but are now mostly in Government hands, the list alone would be long and tedious. One of the finest palaces is in the Lazienki Park, and was built by King Stanislaus Poniatowski. It is the residence of the Emperor of Russia when he comes to Warsaw; but as his visits are rare, it is almost always accessible to travellers. We stopped a few minutes in front of the statue of King John Sobieski. There is an anecdote about this statue which the students of Russian and Polish history will appreciate. During a visit in 1850 the Emperor Nicholas paused in front of the statue, and remarked to those around him, 'The two kings of Poland who committed the greatest errors were John Sobieski and myself, for we both saved the Austrian monarchy.'
"Inside the palace there are many fine paintings and other works of art. There are portraits of Polish kings and queens, and other rare pictures, but not as many as in the Castle of Villanov, which we afterwards visited. In the latter, which was the residence of John Sobieski, and now belongs to Count Potocki, there are paintings by Rubens and other celebrated masters, and there is a fine collection of armor, including the suit which was presented to Sobieski by the Pope, after the former had driven the Turks away from Vienna. It is beautifully inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, and covered with arabesques of astonishing delicacy. We could have spent hours in studying it, and you may be sure we left it with great reluctance.
A BUSINESS MAN OF WARSAW.
"Warsaw has a population of nearly three hundred thousand, and there are a good many factories for the manufacture of carriages, pianos, cloth, carpets, and machines of various kinds. The city is the centre of alarge trade in grain, cattle, horses, and wool, and altogether it may be considered prosperous. Much of the business is in the hands of the Jews, who have managed to have and hold a great deal of wealth in spite of the oppression they have undergone by both Poles and Russians.
"The women of Warsaw are famous for their beauty, and we are all agreed that we have seen more pretty faces here than in any other city of Europe in the same time. The Jews of Warsaw are nearly all blonds; the men have red beards, and the hair of the women is of the shade that used to be the fashion among American and English actresses, and is not yet entirely forgotten. We bought some photographs in one of the shops, and are sure they will be excellent adornments for our albums at home.
"In the evening we went to the opera in the hope of seeing the national costumes of the Poles, but in this we were disappointed. The operas are sung in Italian; the principal singers are French, Italian, English, or any other nationality, like those of opera companies elsewhere, and only the members of the chorus and ballet are Poles. Russian uniforms are in the boxes and elsewhere in the house, and every officer is required to wear his sword, and be ready at any moment to be summoned to fight. The men not in uniform are in evening dress, and the ladies are like thoseof an audience in Vienna or Naples, so far as their dress is concerned. The opera closed at half-past eleven; our guide met us outside the door, and when we proposed a stroll he said we must be at the hotel by midnight, under penalty of being arrested. Any one out-of-doors between midnight and daylight will be taken in by the police and locked up, unless he has a pass from the authorities. In troubled times the city is declared in a state of siege, and then everybody on the streets after dusk must carry a lantern.
"As we had no fancy for passing the night in a Russian station-house, we returned straight to the hotel. Probably we would have been there by midnight in any event, as we were tired enough to make a long walk objectionable."
The next day our friends visited some of the battle-fields near Warsaw, and on the third took the train for St. Petersburg, six hundred and twenty-five miles away. There was little of interest along the line of railway, as the country is almost entirely a plain, and one mile is so much like another that the difference is scarcely perceptible. The principal towns or cities through which they passed were Bialystok and Grodno, the latter famous for having been the residence of several Polish kings, and containing the royal castle where they lived. At Wilna, four hundred and forty-one miles from St. Petersburg, the railway unites with that from Berlin. The change of train and transfer of baggage detained the party half an hour or more, but not long enough to allow them to inspect this ancient capital of the independent duchy of Lithuania. At Pskof they had another halt, but only sufficient for patronizing the restaurant. The town is two miles from the station, and contains an old castle and several other buildings of note; it has a prominent place in Poland's war history, but is not often visited by travellers.
IN ST. PETERSBURG.
At Gatchina, famous for its trout and containing an Imperial palace, an official collected the passports of the travellers, which were afterwards returned to them on arriving at the St. Petersburg station. As they approached the Imperial city the first object to catch the eye was a great ball of gold outlined against the sky. Frank said it must be the dome of St. Isaac's Church, and the Doctor nodded assent to the suggestion. The dome of St. Isaac's is to the capital of Russia what the dome of St. Peter's is to Rome—the first object on which the gaze of the approaching traveller is fixed.
A commissioner from the Hôtel de l'Europe was at the station. Doctor Bronson gave him the receipts for their trunks, and after securing their passports, which had been examined on the train during the ride from Gatchina, the party entered a carriage and rode to the hotel. Frank and Fred were impatient to try a drosky, and wondered why the Doctor had not secured one of the vehicles characteristic of the country.
"You'll have abundant opportunities for drosky-riding," said Doctor Bronson, in reply to Fred's query on the subject. "For the present the vehicle is not suited to our purposes, as we have our hand-baggage and other trifles; besides, we are three individuals, while the drosky is only large enough for two."
The youths confirmed with their eyes the correctness of the Doctor's assertion as the little vehicles were whizzing around them in every direction. The drosky is a stout carriage on low wheels, somewhat resembling the victoria of Western Europe, and is drawn by a single horse. The isvoshchik, or driver, is seated on a high box in front, and somehow he manages to get an astonishing speed out of the shaggy animal that forms his team. Frank afterwards wrote as follows concerning droskies and isvoshchiks:
"It is astonishing to contemplate the swarm of droskies with which St. Petersburg and every other Russian city abounds. They are to be found everywhere and at all hours. No matter where you may be, or at what hour of the day or night, you have only to call out 'Isvoshchik!' or 'Drosky!' and one of the little carriages appears as if by magic. Not only one, but half a dozen will be pretty sure to come forward. The drivers contend, and not always very politely, for the honor of your patronage;but as soon as you have made your selection the rejected ones drop away and leave you undisturbed.
ISVOSHCHIKS IN WINTER.
"There is something interesting in the manner of the isvoshchik, especially in the marked contrast before and after he has made a bargain with you. Until the transaction is closed, he is as independent as the hackman of New York or the cabby of London. The moment the bargain is settled and he has accepted your offer, he is your willing slave. Offer him forty copecks an hour, and he refuses, while demanding fifty or sixty; you walk on, and he pretends to go away, and if your offer is unreasonably low he will not trouble you again. Suddenly he reins up his horse close to the sidewalk, springs from his seat, and with the word 'Poshowltz' ('If you please') he motions you to enter the carriage. He is now at your service, and will drive just as you desire; your slightest wish will be his law.
DROSKY DRIVERS.
"Doctor Bronson told us we must learn how to count in Russian, and also acquire a few phrases in common use; the more of them we could learn the better. While on the train from Warsaw to St. Petersburg we learned to count. I think we did it in about two hours, as it was reallyvery simple after we had gone through the numerals up to ten and fixed them in mind. Perhaps you would like to know how it is done; well, here it is:
"The numerals from one to twelve are o-deen, dva, tree, che-tee-ri, pyat, shayst, sem, vocem,de-vee-at,de-ci-at, odeen-nat-zat, dva-nat-zat. For thirteen, fourteen, and so on, you add 'nat-zat' to the single numerals till you get to twenty, which is 'dva-deciat,' or two tens. Twenty-one is 'dva-deciat-odeen,' or two tens and one, and so on. You go up to thirty, which is 'tree-deciat,' or three tens, but generally shortened in pronunciation to 'treetsat' or 'tritsat.' All the other tens up to ninety are formed in the same way, with the exception of forty, which is 'sorok.' Ninety is 'deviat-na-sto' ('ten taken from hundred'), and one hundred is 'sto;' two hundredis 'dva-sto.' The other hundreds are formed in the same way to five hundred, which is 'pyat sot;' six hundred is 'shayst sot,' and the other hundreds go on the same way; one thousand is 'tis-syat-sha.' You can now go ahead with tens and hundreds of thousands up to a million, which is 'meel-yon'—very much like our own word for the same number.
"It helps us greatly in getting around among the people without a guide. We can bargain with the drivers, make purchases in the shops, and do lots and lots of things which we could not if we didn't know how to count. Any boy or man who comes to Russia should learn to count while he is riding from the frontier to St. Petersburg, and if he takes our advice he will do so. He can find it all in Murray's or any other good guide-book, and he will also find there the most useful phrases for travelling purposes.
"In driving with the isvoshchiks, we have found them very obliging, and both Fred and I have been many times surprised at their intelligence when we remembered that very few of them were able to read or write their own language. When they find we are foreigners, and do not speak Russian, they do not jabber away like French or German drivers, or London cabbies, but confine themselves to a very few words. Take one we had to-day, for example: as he drove along he called our attention to the churches and other public buildings that we passed by, pronouncing the name of the building and nothing more. In this way we understood him; but if he had involved the name with a dozen or twenty other words we should have been in a perfect fog about it.
SLEDGE OF A HIGH OFFICIAL.
"In winter the drosky makes way for the sledge, which is the tiniest vehicle of the kind you can imagine. Two persons can crowd into a sledge, though there is really room for only one. Whether you are one or two, you sit with your face within ten or twelve inches of the driver's back, which forms almost the entire feature of your landscape. The sledges in winter are even more numerous than are the droskies in summer, as many persons ride then who do not do so when the weather is warm.
"Everybody rides in a Russian city in winter—at least everybody who claims to have much respect for himself; and in fact riding is so cheap that it must be a very shallow purse that cannot afford it. For a drive of a mile or less you pay eight or ten copecks (ten copecks equal eight cents), and you can ride a couple of miles for fifteen copecks, and sometimes for ten. By the hour you pay forty or fifty copecks; and if you make a bargain you can have the vehicle all to yourself a whole day for a dollar and a half, and sometimes less. They go very fast; and if your time islimited, and you want to see a good deal in a little while, it is the best kind of economy to hire an isvoshchik to take you about."
We left our friends on the way to the hotel when we wandered off to hear what Frank had to say about the droskies and their drivers. The ride along the streets was full of interest to the youths, to whom it was all new; but it was less so to Doctor Bronson, who had been in St. Petersburg before. They drove up the Vosnesenski Prospect, a broad avenue which carried them past the Church of the Holy Trinity, one of the interesting churches out of the many in the city, and then by a cross street passed into the Nevski Prospect, which may be called the Broadway of the Russian capital. We shall hear more of the Nevski Prospect later on.
At the hotel they surrendered their passports to the clerk as soon as they had selected their rooms; the Doctor told the youths they would not again see those important documents until they had settled their bill and prepared to leave. Frank and Fred were surprised at this announcement, and the Doctor explained:
"The passports must go at once to the Central Bureau of the Police, and we shall be registered as stopping in this hotel. When the register has been made the passports will be returned to the hotel and locked up in the manager's safe, according to the custom of the country."
"Why doesn't he give them back to us instead of locking them in the safe?" one of the youths inquired.
"It has long been the custom for the house-owner to keep the passport of any one lodging with him, as he is in a certain sense responsible for his conduct. Besides, it enables him to be sure that nobody leaves without paying his bill, for the simple reason that he can't get away. When we are ready to go we must give a few hours' notice; the passports will be sent to the police-office again, with a statement as to our destination; after we have paid our bills and are ready to go, the passports will be handed to us along with the receipt for our money."
"That makes hotel-keeping a great deal more certain than it is in American cities, does it not?" said Fred.
"And you never hear in Russia of a man running away from a hotel where he has contracted a large bill, and leaving nothing but a trunk filled with straw and stove-wood as security, do you?" Frank inquired.
"Such a thing is unknown," the Doctor answered. "I once told some Russian acquaintances about the way hotel-keepers were defrauded in America by unprincipled persons. One of them exclaimed, 'What a happy country! and how cheaply a man could live there, with no police officers to stop his enterprise!'"
"When you go from one city to another," said the Doctor, "the formality to be observed is slight, and the hotel people will attend to it for you without charge. When you are going to leave Russia, a few days' notice must be given at the police-office; and if any creditors have filed their claims against you with the police, you must settle them before you can have your passport. If any one owes you money, and you have reason to believe he intends leaving the country, you can stop him or get your money by leaving your account with the police for collection. Absconding debtors are nearly as rare in Russia as absconding hotel-patrons, for the simple reason that the law restricts their movements. In spite of what our English friend said of the passport system, there are some excellent features about it. Another thing is—"
They were interrupted by a servant, who came to ask if there were any friends in St. Petersburg whom they wished to find. The commissioner was going to the Police Bureau with the passports, and would make any inquiries they desired.
The Doctor answered in the negative, and the servant went away.
"That is what I was about to mention," said Doctor Bronson, as soon as the door was closed. "The first time I came to St. Petersburg I was riding along the Nevski Prospect, and saw an old acquaintance going in the other direction. He did not see me, and before I could turn to follow him he was lost in the crowd of vehicles. But in two hours I found him, and we had a delightful afternoon together. How do you suppose I did it?
"Why, I sent to the Police Bureau, paid two cents, and obtained a memorandum of his address. For a fee of two cents you can get the address of any one you name, and for two cents each any number of addresses. In numerous instances I found it a great convenience, and so have other travellers. If you wanted to find a friend in New York or London, and didn't know his address, you would have a nice time about it; but in Moscow or St. Petersburg there would be no trouble whatever."
As soon as they had removed the dust of the journey our friends went out for a stroll before dinner. The Hôtel de l'Europe is on the corner of the Nevski Prospect and one of the smaller streets, and only a short distance from theKazanski Sobor, or Church of Kazan. But before they enter this celebrated edifice we will look with them at the grand avenue, the Nevski Prospect.
"It is straight as a sunbeam for three miles," said Fred in his note-book, "with the Admiralty Buildings at one end, and the Church of St. Alexander Nevski at the other, though the latter is a little way from theline. It is perfectly level from end to end, like a street of New Orleans or Sacramento. St. Petersburg is built on a marsh, and through its whole extent there isn't a hill other than an artificial one. It is a broad avenue (one hundred and thirty feet in width), reminding us of the boulevards of Paris, and the crowd of vehicles coming and going at all hours of the day and far into the night makes the scene a picturesque one.
RUSSIAN WORKMEN ON THEIR WAY HOME.
"All classes and kinds of Russians are to be seen here, from the mujik, with his rough coat of sheepskin, up to the officer of the army, whose breast is covered with decorations by the dozen or even more. The vehicles are of many kinds, the drosky being the most frequent, and there is hardly one of them without theduga, or yoke, over the horse between the shafts. The horses are driven furiously, but they are completely underthe control of their drivers, and accidents are said to be very rare. Perhaps this is owing to the fact that a driver is liable to severe punishment if he causes any injury to a pedestrian.
RUSSIAN OFFICER WITH DECORATIONS.
"Somebody has remarked that the Nevski Prospect ought to be called Toleration Avenue, for the reason that it contains churches of so many different faiths. There are of course the Russo-Greek churches, representing the religion of the country, and there are Catholic, Lutheran, Dutch, and Armenian churches, standing peacefully in the same line. It is a pitythat the adherents of these diverse religions do not always agree as well as do the inanimate edifices that represent them.
"The buildings are very substantial in appearance, and many of them are literally palaces. The military headquarters are on the Nevski, and so is the palace of one of the grand-dukes; then there are several palaces belonging to noble families. There is the Institution of St. Catherine, and the Gostinna Dvor, or Great Market-place, with ten thousand merchants, more or less, transacting business there. We'll go there to make some purchases and tell you about it; at present we will cross the Nevski to the Church of Kazan.
"It reminds us of the Church of St. Peter at Rome, as it has a colonnade in imitation of the one which attracts the eye of every visitor to the Eternal City, and takes its name from "Our Lady of Kazan," to whom it is dedicated. Kazan was once a Tartar city, and the capital of the Tartar kingdom of the same name. It was fortified, and stoutly defended, and gave the Russians a great deal of trouble. In the sixteenth century John the Terrible conquered the kingdom and annexed it to Russia. The last act in the war was the capture of the city of Kazan. The Russians were several times repulsed, but finally the Kremlin was carried, and the Tartar power came to an end. A picture of the Virgin was carried in front of the attacking column, and this picture, all devout Russians believe, gave the victory over the Moslem. The church was built in memory of the event, and the sacred picture from Kazan is preserved and worshipped here.
"It is a beautiful church, in the form of a cross, two hundred and thirty-eight feet long and one hundred and eighty-two feet wide. From the ground to the top of the cross above the cupola is more than two hundred and thirty feet, and the cupola is so large that it is visible from a long distance. As we entered the church we were struck by the absence of seats. We were told by the Doctor that Russian churches contain no seats, and all worshippers must stand or kneel while at their devotions. To this there are no exceptions; the same requirement being made of the Emperor as of the most obscure peasant.
"There is no instrumental music in the Greek Church, and church choirs composed of male and female voices are unknown here. All the singers in the churches are men; the prayers are mostly intoned, and all the congregation joins in the responses. There are no pews, or reserved places of any kind, except a standing-place for the Emperor, all worshippers being considered equal; neither are there any fees to be paid by those who come to worship.
"The picture of Our Lady of Kazan, which has such a miraculous legend connected with it, is richly covered with precious stones, said to be worth nearly a hundred thousand dollars. There are other costly pictures in the church, but none to equal this one. There are a good many flags, and other trophies of war, along the walls and around the pillars; and, to tell the truth, it has almost as much the appearance of a military museum as of a cathedral. There are the keys of Hamburg, Leipsic, and other cities which at various times have been captured by Russia, and the church contains the tombs of several Russian generals who were killed in the war with France in 1812.